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Growth deficits in children with sickle cell disease

Célia Maria Silva1, Marcos Borato Viana

  • 1Hemoglobinopathy Out-Patient Clinic, Hemominas Foundation, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Archives of Medical Research
|May 29, 2002
PubMed

Insights

Children with sickle cell anemia (HbSS) show significant growth deficits, particularly in weight, over one year. Rapid red blood cell turnover may contribute to this impaired growth in pediatric patients.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Hematology
  • Growth and Development
  • Sickle Cell Disease

Background:

  • Growth deficits are prevalent in children with sickle cell disease.
  • The underlying pathophysiology of impaired growth remains poorly understood.
  • Prospective studies are limited.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To prospectively collect anthropometric measurements in children with sickle cell disease over one year.
  • To correlate these measurements with hematologic data.
  • To investigate growth patterns in pediatric sickle cell disease.

Main Methods:

  • Included 100 children under 8 years old: 73 with sickle cell anemia (HbSS) and 27 with hemoglobinopathy SC (HbSC).
  • Standardized Z scores for weight-for-age (waz), height-for-age (haz), and weight-for-height (whz) were calculated.
  • Compared measurements to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reference population.

Main Results:

  • Children with HbSS showed significant decreases in waz (p=0.01) and whz (p=0.02) after one year.
  • No significant decrease in haz was observed (p=0.48).
  • Lower waz scores correlated with lower hemoglobin and higher reticulocyte counts (p=0.03, p=0.08).

Conclusions:

  • Growth deficits are evident in children with sickle cell anemia (HbSS) even over short observation periods.
  • Accelerated red blood cell turnover is a potential contributing factor to impaired growth.
  • Anthropometric measurements did not significantly deteriorate in children with HbSC.
Abstract

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